/*
 * Created on Feb 9, 2005
 * Created by Alon Rohter
 * Copyright (C) Azureus Software, Inc, All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
 *
 */

package org.gudy.azureus2.plugins.network;

/**
 * Represents a managed peer connection, over which messages can be sent and received.
 */
public interface Connection {

    /**
     * Connect this connection's transport, i.e. establish the peer connection. If this connection is already established (from an incoming connection
     * for example), then this provides a mechanism to register the connection listener, in which case connectSuccess() will be called immediately.
     * 
     * @param listener
     *            notified on connect success or failure
     */
    public void connect(ConnectionListener listener);

    /**
     * Close and shutdown this connection.
     */
    public void close();

    /**
     * Get the connection's outgoing message queue.
     * 
     * @return outbound message queue
     */
    public OutgoingMessageQueue getOutgoingMessageQueue();

    /**
     * Get the connection's incoming message queue.
     * 
     * @return inbound message queue
     */
    public IncomingMessageQueue getIncomingMessageQueue();

    /**
     * Begin processing incoming and outgoing message queues.
     */
    public void startMessageProcessing();

    /**
     * Returns the transport object for this connection.
     * 
     * @since 3.0.5.3
     */
    public Transport getTransport();

    /**
     * Returns <tt>true</tt> if the connection represents an incoming connection.
     * 
     * @since 3.0.5.3
     */
    public boolean isIncoming();

    /**
     * descriptive text for the connection
     * 
     * @return
     */
    public String getString();
}
